Ten resources for studying the ‘global foodscape’

Geographers interested in the ‘foodscape’ (or, more plainly, the geography – – or geographies?! – – of food) have lots of online options when it comes to finding data and information, gleaning insights about recent changes, or keeping track of what’s going on right now. Below are ten of the best options – – I’m sure there are more and probably ones I shouldn’t have overlooked, but this is a start (if you want to point out some others, please leave a comment).

There are lots of non-governmental organizations interested in food, in hunger, in agriculture’s role in development, etc. In Ireland, you can see what Trocaire does to end poverty and hunger or what Concern works on with respect to livelihoods or emergencies, including food crises. You might also consider looking at what Oxfam does in this area.

Within the foodscape there are some very powerful corporate players (agriculture-based, suppliers, food and beverage companies, retail firms, and privately-owned sellers of seeds, food, etc.) and they all have websites with resources, often defending what they do and how they do it. Consider here the web sites of Sime Darby, BASF, Nestle, Wal-Mart, and Cargill. Or, look at the Table showing the top 25 TNCs in agribusiness industries on page 124 of the UNCTAD report on agribusinesses, mentioned above, and choose a firm you are interested in and see what they have to say for themselves! You might also enjoy reading what Irish corporations say, such as Greencore or Kerry Group.

Alongside La Via Campesina, there are numerous observers and critics of the way food is produced and distributed around the world today. Worth checking are the sites of FIAN, the Transnational Institute, which has a lot to say about food issues, or GRAIN.

There are some really good blogs you might consider reading. One is by Canada-based Haroon Akram-Lodhi, a leading scholar of agrarian political economy. There’s also ‘Another Countryside’, hosted at PLAAS, the Programme for Land and Agrarian Studies in the University of the Western Cape, South Africa.

Finally, to really keep track of things happening right now, you should regularly visit Farmlandgrab.org, which gathers articles in numerous languages about what is widely referred to as the ‘global land grab’ (or, more benignly, large-scale land investments: for more on the debate, see this excellent overview by Borras and Franco).